A vehicle typically includes a climate control system which maintains a temperature within a passenger compartment of the vehicle at a comfortable level by providing heating, cooling, and ventilation. Comfort is maintained in the passenger compartment by an integrated mechanism referred to in the art as a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) air-handling system. The HVAC air-handling system conditions air flowing therethrough and distributes the conditioned air throughout the passenger compartment.
Vehicle passengers often prefer personalized comfort within a specific zone of the passenger compartment. This can be provided by individualized temperature, mode, and volume control of the air flow. In order to accomplish individualized temperature, mode, and volume control of the air flow within the passenger compartment, the passenger compartment is divided into independent control zones.
Individualized control is often referred to in the art as multi-zone control. For example, one zone may be a front seat portion of the passenger compartment of the vehicle. This zone can be subdivided into a front driver-side zone and a front passenger-side zone. Another zone may be the rear passenger portion of the vehicle.
Preferably, the temperature, mode, and volume of air flow within each zone can be independently controlled. As is known in the art, dual-zone control typically refers to independent control of two zones including the front driver-side zone and the front passenger side zone. Similarly, tri-zone control typically refers to independent control of three zones including the front driver-side zone, the front passenger-side zone, and the rear passenger zone.
Prior art multi-zone temperature control including the rear passenger zone has been provided by an auxiliary HVAC air-handling system for the rear zone in the vehicle. While the prior art auxiliary rear HVAC air-handling systems perform adequately, independent control of a driver side rear passenger zone and a passenger side rear passenger zone has yet to be cost effectively and efficiently facilitated.
It would be desirable to produce a control module for an HVAC air-handling system for a vehicle, wherein a cost and a space requirement for the module are minimized and a blend, a mode, and a volume of air flow in each zone may be independently controlled.